Monday, June 12, 2017

The Blessing- Week 98

What a blessed week in Oklahoma!

This week we were so fortunate to have a
visiting General Authority Seventy and his wife come to our mission for a
mission tour and then after that he actually presided over our stake conference
this weekend as well! It was truly a week of edification, sanctification,
renewal, inspiration, spiritual confirmation, and testimonial growth. I loved
each and every minute!

Ashanti is still progressing so much and
making decisions that are propelling her to true conversion and eternal life
which is such a miraculous process to witness. I will never grow weary of
seeing the Lord's hand and power in my life and in others lives as He guides us
on the paths of eternity. There were so many other people we got to see and
other miracles we were blessed to witness and be apart of but primarily today I
wanted to share a couple of the things that I learned from this week of
ministering from on High.

Elder and Sister Echo Hawk are both converts
to the church and speak with such love, respect, and reverence towards the
missionaries and the members who played such an influential role in their
conversion. As they bore testimony of this conversion they experienced, they
invited the Spirit in all that they did and said particularly as they testified
of the power of the Book of Mormon and as they said something that will forever
echo in depth of my soul. In speaking of those missionaries that taught them
and helped them in their conversion Elder Echo Hawk said "I would like to
be a witness for my two missionaries at the judgement day." This one line,
I feel, will have changed my life forever more. The Spirit bore witness of it
to me and in a flood of thoughts and emotions I began thinking of those who
have played such a profound role in my life, namely my parents, and thought to
myself, "I would like to stand as a witness for my mom and my dad at the
judgement day." That thought continued to develop and I thought more of
others who played a role in the conversion of my life to this point and I
realized I want to stand as a witness for each of them and my thoughts on the
subject concluded with the realization that I hope and pray that I can live the
kind of life that those around me will be able to see and witness a very real,
physical and spiritual change, that they can see my life from the beginning,
see the flaws and weaknesses and shortcomings and witness the desires of my
heart and my nature begin to change into a character of pure love and discipleship,
a truly Christlike life, countenance, and reflection permeate my entire being
so that others will be able to stand as a witness for me at the last day that
they have truly seen and witnessed a mighty change in me to the point that I
have no more desire or disposition to do evil but to do good continually
because I will give all my sins to feel the power of the Holy Ghost that I may
know the Almighty, my Heavenly Father and my Savior and Friend.

Keep the faith,

Elder Ricks

PS: Hannah was in Texas this weekend and
went to church down there. She looked on LDS tools and learned that the ward
meets at 1:00 so she arrived, ready for church, and walked into a chapel where
there was seemingly nothing going on because there were just a few people standing
and talking. She thought maybe she had seen the wrong time or went to the wrong
place and knocked on one of the doors where a couple of Priesthood leaders were
standing and talking together. She inquired about the meeting telling them she
had just recently joined the church a couple weeks ago and it was her first
time there and they informed her that she was at the right place and the right
time but it was stake conference that day for them so it was over now but that
there was someone she needed to meet so they walked her into another room where
she met Quentin L. Cook and was able to sit down and talk with him for 15 or 20
minutes. She recounted her conversion story to him and she was struck at the
love and brightness and genuineness of that man. Two weeks as a member and she
meets an apostle and is able to have a sit down conversation with him, I
promise you with how miraculous this whole thing has been that the Lord is
preparing Hannah for His great and eternal purposes and we can't wait to see
what those things will be!